them do now too shamelesly make broad their Phylacteries and inlarge the borders of their garments and love the chief chairs in the Schools and to be saluted in the Markets and to be called of men Doctor And by this they go in the apparrel and harness of the Mystical body of Antichrist because it is written that he is the King of all the children of Pride And the Crown of Pride of these children of Pride shall be troden down And thus as it is manifest what Religion founded the Vniversities so it is as manifest what Religion will in the appointed time destroy these Foundations if they be not truly and thoroughly Reformed For surely as they are if the work of Christ go forward in the world as it necessarily must do notwithstanding the present defection in the appointed time they can no more be held up then the house built on the sand in the time of Tempest For the true Spiritual Church is built on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and so it is firmly founded upon a Rock and can never fall But the Vniversities are built on the Philosophers and Heathen Plato and Aristotle being the chief corner stones and so they are built upon the sand and neither can their own hands uphold them nor the Secular Arm establish them in that day wherein the Lord alone shall be exalted But it is not men of moral and civil Religion and Righteousness who will do this work and execute this vengeance for the Inchauntments of the Vniversities are too strong and mighty for all Humane Spirits But the called chosen and faithfull Ones of Christ when he shall summon them and call them to his foot they shall not stand on-Complements Formalities and Niceties nor regard frindship or enmity but through the Power of Faith shall break through all that can be said and objected by the Wisdom Policy Prudence and Religion of man and shall execute the righteous Judgements of the Lord on these Mothers of Harlots and Fornications of the Nations And whereas he saith their Destruction will never be but of themselves I do verily believe that For seeing their Root is rottenness their Fruit must needs be Destruction Yea the Lord will raise up his word in the midst of them to destroy them For the more the word of the Lord shall blow upon the Vniversity the more shall this Grass wither and the flower thereof that is Humane Learning fade away till it be at last quite dryed up And this is the Burden of the Vniversity whose day is coming when iniquity shall have an end And thus have I done with these things There were many other things in that Sâ—rmon as contrary to the Gospel which for brevities sake I have omitted Now what a sad thing is it that such poysonfull Doctrine should be poured forth into an Vniversity Congregation and that by the Ministry of such a man and if the Ceremonies of the Law were in use under the Gospel how ought we to rend our Garments at the bearing of these things And now blessed Lord Jesus who wast crucified dead and buried but art risen from the Dead by the Eternal Spirit and art ascended on high to fill all things have mercy on thy poor Church which is so grievously rent and torn this day by Wolves in Sheeps cloathing and is thus hurt and consumed by poysonable Doctrine of men who seek themselves and their own things to the harm and ruin of thy poor people O thou Son of the Living God who are the way the truth and the life how shall the Kingdom of Antichrist be brought down when the hands of such men who seem Pillars in the Church are stretched forth so strongly to hold it up And how shall the days of Antichrist be shortned when his Kingdom is coming forth again in the greatest deceivableness of unrighteousness that hath ever yet appeared in the World to delude the Nations O Lord remember all thy Promises and make haste to destroy Babylon the Great with all its Mysteries of Righteousness and Vnrighteousness and let it sink as a Milstone in the Sea without any hope or possibility of a Resurrection And seeing there is no hand of man stretched out for this work but all hands are against it do thou destroy it O Lord without hand even with the Spirit of thy mouth and brightness of thy coming according to the Truth of thy Promises and the unutterable sighs and groanes of thy Spirit occasioned thereby in the hearts of all thy faithfull and elect Even so Lord And let thy Kingdom come and make no long tarrying AMEN A TESTIMONY From the WORD Against DIVINITY-DEGRES IN THE University OR Any Academical Degrees made usâ— of for the Ministry of the GOSPEL THe Universities whose soul and life do lye in humane Learning and School-Divinity that they might gaine the greater profit to themselves and glory to their children have after the example of the heathen given their children Degrees in Dâ—vinity as they in Art and the glorious Titles of Batchelors Masters and Doctors in Divinity as so many Crowns of Gold upon their heads to win them honour and reputation with all people who have been under the delusion of Antichrist And in the confirming of these Graduations or Degrees which also is done for a sum of money they give the Graduates license and power to preach and to expound the Scriptures and that by the sole Authority of the University For the Vice-chancelor admitting a Bachelour in Divinity to his Degree useth these words in the name of the University We admit you to declare all the Apostolical Epistles in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And so the Batchelour in Divinity hath Power according to his Degree only to deal with the Apostolical Epistles but must go no farther And admitting a Doctor to his Degree the Vice-chancelor saith thus We admit you to interpret and profess all the holy Scriptures both of the old and new Testament in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And thus doth the University through power received from Antichrist give men chiefly for money Divinity-Degrees and through those Degrees it gives Authority and priviledge to Batchelors in Divinity to expound part of the Scriptures and to Doctors to expound and profess all the Scriptures and they that gaine these Degrees to themselves are as there is good reason the great men in account with the University and also with the carnal people of Antichrist how destitute soever they be of the faith and spirit of the Gospel Wherefore I cannot chuse but give in my Testimony against this glorious and gainful priviledge of the Universities to wit their conferring upon their children Degrees in Divinity and creating them Masters in that Mystery which none can teach but God himself and which none can learn but true believers who are borne of God and are his true Disciples And
which the Greek should have said For the Question between them being touching Paul and Plato the Greek endeavoured to prove that Paul was rude and unlearned but the Christian through his simplicity did endeavor to prove that Paul was more learned and eluquent then Plato And so the Greek should obtain the Victory if the Christians Reasons should prevail For if Paul were more learned then Plato then might men object that he overcame not the world through Grace but through Eloquence Wherefore that which the Christian spake made for the Greek and that which the Greek spake made for the Christian Wherefore he saith when the Greeks shall say the Apostles were rude and unlearned poor mean simple obscure persons let us acknowledge it as the truth For this is not their reproach but their glory that being such they yet overcame the Learned men the Wise men the Philosophers the Rhetoricians the Orators the Princes and all the world as if they had not been men For when any thing is done above the State and power of Nature this doth exceedingly manifest and magnifie the Grace of God And so it appears that Chrysostom was of another mind in this matter touching Paul then Mr. Simpson and that Paul was of another mind touching himself Now seeing Mr. Simpson doth here insinuate that Humane Learning fits a man to the Ministry of the Gospel and seeing this also is the Opinion of all the carnal and unbelieving people I do desire them to consider what some Godly men have spoken clearly from the word of God in this matter Chrysostom who knew the Mysterie of the Gospel more clearly then any of the Ancient Writers in his Comment on the first Epistle to the Corinthians doth wholly exclude Humane Learning from contributing any thing either to the speaking or receiving the Gospel For saith he to believe in Him that was Crucified and Buried and to be fully perswaded that he rose again and sits at the right hand of God and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and that he is made of God to the whole Church Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption this Doctrine stands not in need of Humane Wisdom and Reasonings but of faith only and that both in them that speak it and in them that receive it For the Apostles did not proceed in this matter in outward wisdom but in faith and so became more wise and excellent then the worldly wise and so much the more as it is a greater matter to receive the things of God by faith then to be perswaded into them by the force of Argument He adds also That to the receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel neither is the Wise man profited thing by his Wisdom neither is the plain man hindred any thing by his Ignorance Yea if I may speak a wonderfull thing saith he Ignorance is more fit and ready to receive the Gospel then Wisdom And a Shepherd and a Plowman will sooner receive the Gospel and submit to it then a Schollar who lives in the strength of Humane wisdom and Reason He farther saith there that where the wisdom of God is as it is in the Gospel there is no need of mans wisdom as where the Sun is there is no need of a Candle And he concludes there this matter thus That the Preaching of the Gospel is a heavenly thing and that Humane VVisdom and Learning cannot help herein but rather hinder And that therefore when Christ sent forth the first Teachers of the Gospel he took not wise and learned Philosophers that the Cross of Christ might not be made void and that the faith of Christians should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God But he chose plain Fishermen Tent-makers Publicans Obscure Simple Poor Contemptible Ignorant and Vnlearned men And these overcame Kings Princes People Nations Greeks Philosophers Orators Sophisters they overcame the antient Manners Customs and the very Religion of the world also their Laws Judgements divers sorts of punishments and innumerable kinds of deaths and by all this saith he it was manifest that their preaching was not in Humane wâ—sdom but in the Grace of God And thus doth Chrysostom affirm and prove that Humane Learning doth not fit men to the Ministry of the Gospel but is rather a hindrance thereunto and that the Grace of God only fits them for this heavenly work Hear also what Wickliff saith to this matter in his book entituled The Path way to perfect knowledge where he sheweth that it is not Humane Learning that helps to understand the Scriptures and to profit in the study of them but something more high and heavenly His own words as these He whose heart is full of love comprehendeth without any error the manifold abundance and largest teaching of Gods Scripture For Paul saith the fulness of the Law is Charity and in another place the end of the Law is Charity of clean heart and good conscience and of faith unfeigned And Christ saith Thou shalt love thy Lord God of all thy heart and of all thy soul and of all thy mind and thy Neighbor as thy self For in these two Commandments hangeth all the Law and the Prophets And as the root of all evil is Covetousness so the root of all good is Love Charity by which we love God and the Neighbour holdeth surely all the greatness and largness of Gods speeches Therefore if we have not leisure to search all the holy Scriptures and to pierce into all the privities of them hold thou love whereon all things hang and so shalt thou hold that which thou learnest there and also that which thou learnest not For if thou know Charity thou knowest something whereon also that hangeth which thou knowest not And in that that thou understandest in Scripture love is open and in that that thou understandest not love is hid Therefore he that holdeth love in vertues or good life holdeth both that which is open and that which is hid in Gods word And after speaking to the Clergy he saith Therefore worldly fools do ye first repent of your sins and forsake pride and covetousness and be ye meek and fear ye God in all things and love your neighbour as your self and then shall ye profit in the study of Holy Writ And this is a far other way to understand the Scriptures then Humane Learning And after he speaking of the Abominations of the Vniversity of Oxford saith thus The fourth Abomination is that it is now purposed to hinder Christian men from learning freely Gods Law till they have spent nine or ten years at Art or Philosophy which comprehendeth many strong errors of Heathen men against the Christian Belief It seemeth well that God will not cease from vengeance till it and other things be punished sore For it seemeth that worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious do this under pretence that simple men of wit and knowledge know not
this evil should arise but in the end of the world when the world through the prevailing of sin being loaden with the wrath of God should draw neer to hell and damnation For the miserable people must needs hear those things taught and delivered out of the Pulpits which those Molochites have learned in the Universities And they have learned nothing but the highest blasphemies of God Neither is it lawful to have anywhere any other Pastor then these In Jeremiah that valley is called Gehinnom from whence Christ took that word Gehenna which what it signifies I do not well know but it seems to me to come from Janah which signifies to eat up or to pill or waste as Tyrants or Usurers do pill and suck out the people so that Gehinnom is the valley of pilling or wasting the people for these being set over the people as shepherds ought to feed them with the word of life and they in stead thereof do insensibly waste and devour them in their body goods and soul with the pestilent Doctrines of Universitâ—es And such Teachers do the Univesities those Sâ—nagogues of perdition give us Thus Luther These now are Luthers own words which I have made legible to English men Wherein it is manifest that he condemns the Universities in the very institution and constitution of them and chiefly in their chief studies Humane Learning and School-Divinity and also as to that gross popish Opinion that they are the Fountain and Nurseries of the Ministery and that none are fit to teach or so fit to teach as those that have been educated in them Yea though these be raw foolish ignorant fellows yet being University-Graduates must they be set over Towns and Parishes and the miserable people must not onely hear them and their doltish Doctrine brought from the Uniâ—ersities but also must be constrained by secular power and Laws to pay them well for such pains which tends onely to the ruine of their souls for ever and no hand is yet strongly and resolutely stretched out to deliver the people from this intolerable bondage For the necks of the people of the world have never endured so grievous a yoak from any Tyrants as from the Doctrine and Domination of the Clergy For worldly Tyrants have onely afflicted mens bodies and temporal estates which reached but to this short life but these spiritual Tyrants the Clergy or false Ministery when they have got countenance strength and ayd from the wordly Magistrates how have they with their Academical Philosophical Heathenish Divinity infected poysoned and destroyed the people to eternal death and no body durst shun them upon pain of temporal death or punishments But now through the great goodness of God and his mighty Providences and Works from heaven it is a more happy age and happy shall they be who being called forth shall do the work of God against all discouragements and difficulties and shall not with Ephraim being harnessed turn their backs in the day of battel And now to return to our business again touching the Universities let none object that Luther speaks against Popish Universities only for this is but a weak and simple Defence and altogether unable to ward off the mighty blow of Gods word from their heads and hearts For the things condemned in the foregoing Testimonies of Luther are the self same for the substance of them as do live prevaile and flourish in our present Universities as hath been before declared and I leave it to every faithful Christian to judge the truth in this matter But men would faine preserve their Titles Degrees Authority Dignity State Stipends and therefore for defence of these things they must needs say something though it be to never so little purpose but yet by such discourse they sufficiently declare how cool and icie they are for Christs interest and how zealous for their own But certaine it is that as the Universities were set up at first as nurseries for Antichrists kingdome men being therein so educated according to the undertaking of Charles the great in Philosophy and School-Divinity that it might be said to them Vos estis sal terrae lux mundi Ye are the salt of the earth and the light of the world which yet onely agrees to the faithful who are born of God so have they still remained the same hitherto in substance though not without some small change of outward form For first the Philosophy taught and studied in the University is the very same that it was at first and this Philosophy is nothing but the Religion of the heathen for what the Law was to the Jews and the Gospel is to the Christians Philosophy was and is to the heathen and in this study the poor lads wast the flower and cream of their lives to no purpose but to make them more heathenish corrupt and bold then they were by nature And 2. For their Divinity which they usually learn in the Universities out of the Fathers Schoolmen and Systems and in which they are trained up to dispute either for it or against it in the Schools it being in seriousnesâ— all one to them what they hold and maintaine in Religion seeing all is but opinion to them and which they after teach to the peole with special regard to their own profit and advantage this is not the true word and Ministery of the Gospel For the Gospel is the word of faith which word is the word in our hearts according to the tenor of the New Covenant wherein God saith I will write my law in their hearts and put it in their inward parts But now the University-Divines the Truth being indeed dead in their hearts and having no presence nor power there they take it up out of the books and writings of men wherein it hath been buryed and by this means bring forth a dead Doctrine to the world which other men have spoken but they have no experience of and not the word of life which hath quickened them but onely a dead Letter raised up like the lâ—ving Letter which they present to them as the Wâ—tâ—h of Endor raised up a dead Samuel in the outward habit and appearance of the living Samuel and presented him to Saul so these University-Divines bring forth the outward garments and appearance of the Truth to the people when they do best but the substance soul and life of the truth they cannot bring forth because they have not the lâ—ving word of God in their hearts but have onely a dead word which they gather out of the books and writings of men And this is the University-Dâ—vinity And Lastly The Preachers which the Universities send forth are usually in the greatest enmity to Christ and his Gospel of all other men whatsoever and do bring greatest prejudice to Christs Kingdom and advantage to Antichrists For when men without learning and yet without the Spirit of Christ will undertake to teach the people as many also now do